My laboratory focuses on mechanisms and principles that underlie the developing brain. The majority of this work uses functional MRI and resting state functional connectivity MRI to assess typical and atypical populations. A second focus has become testing the feasibility of using various functional and structural MRI techniques in translational studies of developmental neuropsychiatric disorders (e.g., attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism). We are exploring ways to better characterize individual patients with these psychopathologies to help guide future diagnostic, therapeutic and genetic studies.

Michaela Cordova, BA, CADC-I

Positions

Research Associate, Behavioral Neuroscience

I'm a Research Associate and Lab Manager with DCAN; I support research goals of the lab across multiple grants and projects through independent and collaborative investigation, and provide ongoing leadership to our many staff, students, and volunteers in conjunction with our Leadership Team. I began volunteering with DCAN (formerly Fair Lab) in 2012 while working with dual-diagnosis clients as a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor (CADC-I) and joined DCAN as a full time staff member in the Fall of 2014. My projects utilize behavioral and neuroimaging data, as well as machine learning methods, to explore atypical neurodevelopment across the lifespan, neurodevelopmental risk factors, and comorbidities effecting mood and cognition. I plan to continue my research by pursuing a PhD in Clinical Psychology with an interest in Cognitive Neuroscience.

Alice Graham, PhD

I am a developmental neuroscientist and clinical psychologist. I received my PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Oregon. I completed my clinical internship and residency in the Child Development & Rehabilitation Center and the Department of Psychiatry at OHSU. I did a postdoctoral research fellowship in Behavioral Neuroscience at OHSU mentored by Damien Fair at OHSU and Claudia Buss at UC Irvine and Charité University of Medicine in Berlin. In the fall of 2018, I will begin as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at OHSU. I lead the Infant Team in the Development Cognition and Neuroimaging Lab. We study the developing brain beginning soon after birth. We’re interested in how the early environment, starting in the prenatal period, influences developing brain systems and behavioral outcomes. We use structural and functional MRI to characterize the developing brain. We work on optimizing tools so that we can do a good job of assessing early brain development, and how it differs between individuals. We also conduct intervention research with the aim of ameliorating effects of exposure to early life stress and supporting healthy brain development. The overarching goal of our work is prevention of psychiatric disorders and improvement of cognitive and emotional health across the lifespan.

Lisa Karstens, PhD

My research interests are in investigating novel ways to characterize and understand the heterogeneity in human disease, with specific regards to Overactive Bladder Syndrome (OAB). I am particularly interested in the analysis of the microbiome in low biomass samples such as urine and the integration of high dimensional datasets (such as neuroimaging and microbiome) to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of disease and guide therapeutic interventions.

Oscar Miranda Dominguez, PhD

I am a biomedical engineer with more than nine years of experience in research, industry and academy. I have training in electrophysiology, computational neuroscience, functional neuroimaging, closed loop control, and mathematical modeling. During my training, I have studied the brain at different spatiotemporal scales by using different mathematical frameworks and experimental approaches, going from single cell recordings in the hippocampal formation in rats to non-invasive functional MRI in mice, macaques and humans. I am currently a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Behavioral Neuroscience in Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) where I have developed expertise in neuroimaging and clinical research.
Over the last several years I have developed methods and technologies combining the latest findings from neuroimaging, electrophysiology, and clinical psychology to identify biomarkers of psychiatric and neurological disorders at their earlier manifestations, and to build model-based approaches to therapeutics.
As a member of the DCAN lab I collaborate closely with the Parkinson’s Center of Oregon in several Projects aimed to characterize how brain function relates to cognition and mobility